StarCat/CatStar

Fading Paradigms?
(CD Review)
By Alison Ross
When I first heard Deerhunter in 2006, I was magnetized by their cerebralpunk
approach to music. I had not been that gripped by a band since the
mid-80s, when I heard The Cure for the first time. Then, when I saw
Deerhunter live at one of their first shows at Criminal Records in Atlanta, I
knew this would be a band that I would end up following closely throughout
their evolution.
Deerhunter's early records were, of course, their most magically
mesmerizing. Eccentric and charismatic frontman, Bradford Cox,
alternately branded the band's style of music as "surrealist punk" and
"ambient punk," and these tags were on-target, as their music harbored
clashing, antithetical features of tranquil immersive atmospheres and
jaded, jagged edges.
Serene and searing: these oppositional qualities colluded to create the
Deerhunter signature sound.
Then along came "Halcyon Digest," which, though not a radical departure
from earlier releases, was still widely considered to be the band's
breakthrough album. Indeed, the songs were accessible and diverse, and
enabled Deerhunter to attract previously unattainable mainstream
success.
After "Halcyon Digest," however, Deerhunter swerved recklessly to the left,
daringly defying expectations, and released an album of visceral and
vitriolic scorchers. Whereas before Deerhunter had tempered their hard-